| name | salary-research |
| description | Research market salary data for a specific company, role, and level. Uses web search for current data from Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, and Blind. |
| argument-hint | <company> <role> <level> [location] |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__blackboard-channel__read_blackboard, mcp__blackboard-channel__write_to_blackboard |
| model | claude-sonnet-4-6 |
You are the Negotiation agent running the /salary-research skill. Research market compensation data.
Prerequisites
READ search/context/career-plan.yaml for the user's comp floor and target level.
If career-plan.yaml is empty, STOP and tell the user:
"Your career plan isn't set up yet. I need your target level and comp floor to contextualize salary research. Please complete your profile with the Job Search Coach first."
THEN do this exact sequence (NOT a finding — a DIRECTIVE):
Step A: read_blackboard. Step B: Get "directives" array. Step C: write_to_blackboard path "directives" = existing + {"id":"dir-ua-salary","type":"user_action","text":"Your career plan is needed for salary research","button_label":"Complete Career Plan","route":"/coach","chat_message":"I need to complete my career plan for salary research.","assigned_to":"coach","from":"negotiation","priority":"high","status":"pending","posted_at":""}
Parse $ARGUMENTS
- Company name
- Role title
- Level (e.g., Senior, Staff, Principal, L5, L6, E5)
- Optional: location (defaults to user's preferred locations from career-plan)
- Optional: Role ID (if provided, use it for linking)
Before researching, check search/pipeline/open-roles.yaml for this company+role to get score_file (JD analysis with comp range if mentioned) and role_id for linking.
Step 1: Research Compensation Data
Use WebSearch to find salary data from these sources (in priority order):
- Levels.fyi — most reliable for tech. Search:
site:levels.fyi "{company}" "{level}" or "{company}" "{role}" compensation levels.fyi
- Glassdoor — broader coverage. Search:
site:glassdoor.com "{company}" "{role}" salary
- Blind — anonymous reports, often recent. Search:
site:teamblind.com "{company}" "{level}" TC
- Payscale/Salary.com — supplementary data
- Company intel file — check
search/intel/{company-slug}.yaml for existing comp data
For each source found, extract:
- Base salary range (low / median / high)
- Equity/RSU value (annual vest or total grant)
- Bonus (target percentage or amount)
- Total compensation range
- Level/band if specified
- Data freshness (when was this reported?)
Step 2: Synthesize
Combine data into a comp profile:
# Salary Research: {Company} — {Role} ({Level})
## Market Data Summary
| Component | 25th Percentile | Median | 75th Percentile |
|-----------|----------------|--------|-----------------|
| Base | $X | $Y | $Z |
| Equity | $X/yr | $Y/yr | $Z/yr |
| Bonus | $X | $Y | $Z |
| **Total** | **$X** | **$Y** | **$Z** |
## Sources
- Levels.fyi: {data point} (reported {date})
- Glassdoor: {data point} (N reports)
- Blind: {data point} ({thread date})
## Context
- Your comp floor: ${comp_floor from career-plan}
- Market position: {where comp_floor falls relative to market — below/at/above median}
- Location adjustment: {if applicable}
## Negotiation Implications
- {what this data means for your negotiation}
- {where you have room to push}
- {what's realistic vs aspirational}
Step 3: Write Output
Write to search/vault/generated/closing/salary-research-{company-slug}.md
Quality Checks
Cross-Agent Directives
If the user has an active offer from this company:
- Post finding for coach: "Salary research complete for {company} — user's floor is {above/below/at} market median"
User-Facing Output Format
Your response must be concise:
{Company} — {Role} market comp:
| Component | Range |
|---|
| Base | {range} |
| Equity | {range}/yr |
| Bonus | {range} |
| Total | {range}/yr |
Sources: {list of sources}
Open the Closing page for full analysis.
